UPDATE on Partners:
Making Homes for the Arts in Sacred Places
Partners was delighted to welcome Mariam Thiam as its
Program Manager for Arts in Sacred Places in Chicago this
fall. Mariam comes with dual expertise in Chicago’s arts
community and with several denominations. Her most
recent experience as the Executive Director of Hyde Park
School of Dance, which is housed within Hyde Park Union
Church, speaks directly to her new role at Partners.
Mariam has completed work on the Chicago Office’s first
lease facilitation between St. Luke’s Lutheran Church and
Theatre Y. (See story on page 10.) Additionally, Partners has
been honored with our first MacArthur Foundation grant
for the creation of the country’s first database of unused
and underused space available in houses of worship in the
Chicago area. Though the database will start with Chicago, we
hope to eventually apply it nationally.
minute soundscape, Ghosts of Sermons Past, incorporated
recordings of events and worship from the 1920s, 1930s,
1970s, and 2011, opening listeners’ ears to the life of this
building.
In Texas, Arts in Sacred Places is finding its home in Austin.
Program director Karen DiLossi and Suzanne Yowell,
Director of the Texas Office, visited the city in October to
learn about the struggles of artists in the community. Austin
is quickly becoming too expensive for the artists who work
there, so AiSP could be a real boon for local artists and
arts groups. While some Austin congregations are already
hosting arts organizations, Partners has the opportunity to
make more positive change in Austin and is working with the
Austin Creative Alliance on next steps to move the program
forward.
Our work in Philadelphia continues to thrive as we create
new partnerships between artists and congregations.
Recently, Luna Theater Company took up residence in the
Episcopal Church of the Crucifixion. What had been an
unfashionably decorated Fellowship Hall is now an 80seat theatre, and the removal of the drop ceiling revealed
buttressed arches complete with a wood medallion at the
top. With Luna’s residence, Crucifixion has rediscovered
the beauty of its Fellowship Hall and new life has been given
to the space. Luna’s first public performance came during
the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in early September, but the
company’s entire 2013-14 season will be under its new roof.
The Theatrical Design Center continues to grow and
develop. Partners and its collaborator, CultureWorks Greater
Philadelphia, have just completed a series of town hall
meetings where the Design Center’s draft business plan
was presented. With the feedback received from attendees,
Partners will refine its pricing structure and the Center’s
amenities. Bob Reid of Kimmel Bogrette Architecture+Site
will create ground plans and interior visualizations that will
help Partners see the project through to its final completion.
This past fall, with support from the Pew Center for Arts and
Heritage, Partners produced a one-night presentation of
a sound installation – an art form consisting of recordings
emitted from a variety of locations at a site – at historic
Christ Church in Philadelphia, the worship place of several
of the country’s founding fathers. The sixteen-and-a-half9 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Fall 2013
Luna Theater Company transformed the Fellowship Hall at the
Episcopal Church of the Crucifixion into an 80-seat theatre,
removing the drop ceiling in the process to reveal beautiful
wooden beams and a ceiling medallion.